The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Label: Retrograde Records
Catalogue No: FSM-80123-2

Release Date: 2002

Total Duration: 30:32

UPN: 6-3855-70123-3-9

David Shire’s urban jazzy music for this 1974 subway-hijack thriller has been nicely rescued from oblivion by Lukas Kendall of Film Score Monthly who, in his first CD release, serves up a dizzying assemblage of nicely orchestrated jazz and symphonics.

Supported by a 12-page booklet which includes a cue-by-cue analysis of the music, Shire’s dark score is 1970s jazz movie music at its finest. In the tradition of BULLITT and THE FRENCH CONNECTION and other crime movies of the decade, Shire offers his own take on the musical underbelly of modern urban violence. In a far different vein than his symphonic scores for THE HINDENBURG or RETURN TO OZ or even the subdued jazz of THE CONVERSATION, the gritty realism of PELHAM is effectively translated through the milieu of jazz – you can taste the gravel and smell the wet pavement and the sooty sparks from the NYC subway trails. Growling trombones, electrifying monochromatic violin glissandi, furtive piano notes, and a consistent percussive riff gives the film a brutal musical edge, while at the same time enhancing and playing along with the film’s subway train sound effects.

The CD is short, but it does include all the music Shire recorded for the film, including several cues not used in the film. Tracks are a mix of mono and stereo, salvaged from the composer’s personal tapes in lieu of the availability of the original session tapes. Sound quality, however, is quite good and the CD is an important addition to the Shire soundtrack catalog.

Originally published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol. 15 / No.60 / 1996